The present disclosure relates generally to systems that have modular devices interconnected to a digital device using serial bus protocols. It is often desirable to detect the physical location of devices that are attached along a serial bus. This can be desirable where it is intended for different devices to occupy a certain designated physical position along the serial bus.
Some devices that are configured to connect to a serial bus can be considered “smart” devices, and include a microcontroller and associated built-in systems to determine the location of the device on the bus. However, other devices that are configured to attach to a multi-drop serial bus are considered “dumb” devices, having no microcontroller or other system for independently determining their physical location. Nevertheless, it can be desirable to determine the physical location of these types of dumb devices on the bus. For example, in a printing system with Non Volatile Memory-enabled ink supply devices attached to a serial bus, it can be desirable to detect whether specific ink color cartridges have been misinstalled or swapped, potentially causing ink mixing. Such ink supply and other similar serial bus devices ordinarily do not include a microcontroller and the additional circuitry needed to determine their own location, and providing such would add complexity and cost to the devices.
Other approaches to detecting the physical location of dumb devices along a serial bus that have been used involve mechanical keying or additional wiring. These approaches tend to add mechanical and electrical complexity and cost to such systems.